Urinary monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in renal disease

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2) has a critical role in the development of various renal diseases. Data from disease specific experimental animal models and clinical studies confirm that MCP-1 plays an important part in the pathogenesis of renal diseases. The action of MCP-1 in these studies has been shown to be more complex than the traditional concept of monocyte/macrophage recruitment to the inflammatory site. MCP-1 is expressed in renal tissues and it is detectable in urine of patients with a variety of renal diseases. Measurement of urinary levels of MCP-1 can provide valuable information not only for the diagnosis of active renal disease, but also for monitoring of response to therapy. Urinary MCP-1 measurement can provide help with evaluation of the prognosis in various renal diseases. Furthermore, selective targeting of MCP-1 could be an effective treatment in suppressing a number of renal diseases as blocking MCP-1 has already been shown to ameliorate renal diseases in experimental animal models. The advantage of measuring urinary MCP-1 rather than the conventional markers must now be validated using a larger cohort of patients in different renal diseases. Also the therapeutic potential of MCP-1 targeting agents needs to be investigated in clinical studies.